HUNDREDS of households have suffered a break in water supplies.

United Utilities engineers were sent to tackle a burst mains pipe in Thicketford Road, Breightmet, following calls from residents on Friday afternoon.

The water firm said it received more than 100 calls from households this afternoon but the broken mains could have affected many more homes.

Mother-of-two Kelly-Ann Kay, of New Lane, said she had to buy bottles of water for her children after the taps ran dry.

She said: “The water stopped about 2.30pm. I’ve heard that some people round here have no water while others have a little.

"There seems to be a leak on Thicketford Road and part of the road surface there has sunk. It looks like a mains pipe has broken.

“I had to buy bought bottles of water for my kids and make them sandwiches for tea because there was no water to drink or to cook with.I hope it gets sorted out soon.”

She added: “I was supposed to be going to a wedding reception at Tonge Cricket Club tonight. I hope it still goes ahead. I don’t know what they’d do if there’s no water supply.”

“However we’ll make do and mend at home, I suppose. That’s the British way. But I hope it doesn’t go on for too much longer.”

Tonge Cricket Club said its water supply was fine and it had experienced no problems.

A spokesman for the water firm said: “We received the first call about shortages in the Thicketford Road area about 2.30pm on Friday afternoon.

"We had 125 calls from households during the afternoon but there could be several hundred people affected. Some households may have poor water pressure while others may have no water.

“It appears that a six-inch iron mains pipe has burst and our engineers are there now. It has caused damage to the road too.

“We hope to have it fixed later this evening but it is hard to give an exact time. We are trying to link different supplies from other pipes and have also sent a tanker of water there.

“Unfortunately both old and new water pipes can burst and we apologies to customers for the inconvenience.

"It’s a real pain for this to happen at tea time. We hope to have it repaired this evening although we can’t give a specific time.

"Thankfully it’s the only incident in the area at the moment so were giving it our full attention.”